Trends in lizard translocations in New Zealand between 1988 and 2013

There is growing concern about mitigation-driven translocations that move animals from anthropogenic threats at donor sites because of their failure rate and lack of application of scientific principles and best practice. We reviewed all known lizard translocations in New Zealand between 1988 and 2013 and identified 85 translocations of 30 lizard taxa to 46 release sites. Most translocations (62%) were motivated by conservation goals for the species or the release site, and one-third were mitigation-driven translocations, typically motivated by habitat loss due to development. Mitigation-driven translocations began in 2003, and since that time have equalled the number of conservation-motivated translocations. Conservation-motivated translocations usually released lizards on islands without mammalian predators, whereas mitigation-driven translocations usually relocated lizards to mainland sites with introduced predators. Long-term monitoring has been sparse and often rudimentary. Eight lizard translocations have recorded population growth, including one mitigation-driven translocation that was into a fenced reserve. Research on commonly used management techniques to mitigate human-related impacts is recommended to establish whether these techniques benefit lizards in the long term.     

Prostaglandin E antagonist activity of 11-deoxy-16,16-trimethyleneprostaglandin E1

11-Deoxy-16,16-trimethyleneprostaglandin E1 is a potent inhibitor of prostaglandin E-induced contractions of the gerbil colon. The antagonism is directed specifically against the prostaglandin E receptor and is not manifested when contractions are induced by either prostaglandin F2 alpha or acetylcholine.     

Parsimony overcomes statistical inconsistency with the addition of more data from the same gene

Many authors have demonstrated that the parsimony method of phylogenetic analysis can fail to estimate phylogeny accurately under certain conditions when data follow a model that stipulates homogeneity of the evolutionary process. These demonstrations further show that no matter how much data are added, parsimony will forever exhibit this statistical inconsistency if the additional data have the same distributional properties as the original data. This final component—that the additional data must follow the same distribution as the original data—is crucial to the demonstration. Recent simulations show, however, that if data evolve heterogeneously, parsimony can perform consistently. Here we show, using natural data, that parsimony can overcome inconsistency if new data from the same gene are added to an analysis already exhibiting a condition indistinguishable from inconsistency. © The Willi Hennig Society 2005.